Doug’s S.O.A.P Note 7/6/2018

I was thinking about some of the hard parts of the Bible to read. The wars, the killing of entire ethnic groups, and the list after list of rules and regulations of Leviticus. Then I get into the kings of Israel and what a painful journey it is to read about them. They pulled away from the Lord by running, slipping, and falling into many sinful situations. I can’t even imagine the pain this caused and still causes the Lord. Our Lord. The book of Hosea plays this pain out, like the drama in a marriage with an unfaithful spouse. What I hold onto in all this drama, is this passage during those painful times of life journaling:

“Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together; they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel. (Hosea 1: 10-11 NLT)

I think we are living in the “YET” time; the time when Israel was taken back into her homeland. In 1948, Israel was given some of her lands back and given a place to be planted as a nation again. There is no more civil war between Israel and Judah. They are now one nation again led by appointed leaders. What we are now waiting on, is the day when the other parts of the book of Revelation will be fulfilled.

Now back to those kings of Israel. Some of them did downright evil from start to finish, and many of them also had short reigns. There were others that did what was right in God’s sight, followed in the ways of David, but did not remove the shrines set up to worship false gods. They kind of lost heart through the many years of serving.

As I look at my life, I think I am a pretty good person and so are you for that matter. We have not killed anyone lately with an ax or done anything “Viking-like”. All our sins, big or little, caused the Lord of our lives pain. I do not want to be a cause of pain to Him. So, let’s remove the shrines to any false god, let’s remove all the sins big and small, and let’s be like David and serve the Lord all the days of our lives.

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